Creative Writing

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Creative Writing for 'After the Bomb'

Creative writing concepts
At the same time that you are researching related texts, you need to make some decisions about your creative writing. You should select a genre or setting to use as the basis for further development. Some options might include:
  • military or historical fiction
  • spy or political thriller
  • alternate history set during Cold War
  • sci-fi, such as post-apocalyptic fiction
  • domestic tragedy
  • absurdist satire.
Obviously, detailed research and planning needs to happen before composition can commence.

Principles to remember:
  • explore the notion of Cold War anxiety in the a) personal realm or b)political ramifications of the period
  • consider creativley investigating one or more of the four central paradigms: scientific, religious, philosophical and economic
  • it is optional to set your story between August 1945 and 1991 but it is important to explore notions of paranoia and anxiety
  • explore ways of thinking in the Cold War era
  • explore the intensified questioning of humanity and human beliefs/values

Notes from the HSC Marking Centre
Summary

Successful responses:

  • were firmly grounded within their given context,
  • had a sophisticated control of language and structure, and
  • demonstrated deep knowledge of the elective.
  • fluently embedded the stimulus within the response - a key discriminating factor.
  • engaged with the ways of thinking
  • demonstrated a strong awareness of context and embedded it in the response in original and creative ways.
  • established a clear social/political context and used this to reflect the values of the period clearly identifiable through authentic characters and setting
  • used sophisticated language and structure
  • used nuanced vocabulary
  • used evocative descriptive detail
  • successfully used purposeful motifs
  • the manipulation of highly effective figurative language
  • successfully used the language of the particular context, often with a very highly developed sense of the historical details of the period
  • demonstrated the interplay of distinctive and sustained voice[s];
  • demonstrated original and purposeful authorial voice.
  • embedded an intelligent, thought-provoking and/or original use of the provided text
  • demonstrated thorough preparation for the demands of the examination.

Weaker responses:
  • struggled to establish a sense of context in their narrative-this is paramount.
  • did not successfully integrate the stimulus
  • showed a limited understanding of the paradigms central to the electives
  • failed to establish a clear and immediate sense of the elective
  • demonstrated ineffective use of a particular form of imaginative writing
  • wrote overly derivative pieces which simply replicated the language, action and characters of a setting from a prescribed text and could not be valued as original compositions.
  • created amorphous and generalised settings which were not clearly attributable to set texts
  • concept was not successfully anchored in the context/period of the elective.
  • concentrated on addressing the concerns and values of a particular genre or text type (eg: absurdism) rather than demonstrating their understanding of the contextually specific reasons why this movement arose.
  • was so general and/or incoherent that the studied elective could not be determined
  • limited understanding of the paradigms central to the electives
  • simplistic scenarios
  • vague and clichéd use of language
  • poor literacy skills